THE MOLECULAR BASIS OF

INHERITANCE
What are the molecules of
inheritance?
 SEARCH FOR GENETIC MATERIAL
• Genes are located along
chromosomes
• Chemical component of
chromosomes: Protein and DNA
• 1940s, they formerly believed that
protein was the genetic material
(contains essential requirements for
T.H. Morgan’s Experiment hereditary material)
• Their views changed because of
unexpected results in their
experiments----
led to the study of bacteria and
viruses
 DISCOVERY OF DNA

❤ 1928, Frederick Griffith tried to study Streprococcus Pneumoniae ( bacteria that

causes pneumonia)
Streptoccocus Pneumoniae – A. Pathogenic B. Non pathogenic
 He killed the pathogenic bacteria and mixed it with the non pathogenic
bacteria

 Result:
1. some of the living cells became pathogenic
2. its pathogenicity was inherited by the descendants of the bacteria

 Transformation- change in phenotype and genotype due to the

assimilation of external DNA cell
Oswald Avery
searched for the unknown
identity of the transforming
substance

Focused on 3 main candidates:

DNA, RNA and protein

Tested the 3 candidates for its

ability to transform live
pathogenic bacteria

Transformation only occurred

when the DNA was tested
In 1944, Avery, Maclyn McCarty & Colin MacLeod
announced that the transforming agent was DNA
 EVIDENCE THAT VIRAL DNA CAN PROGRAM CELLS

 Bacteriophages or phages :
• viruses that are bacteria eaters
• a little more than DNA enclosed by a protective coat

 In 1952, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase performed
experiments showing that DNA is the genetic material of
a phage known as T2
HERSHEY AND CHASES’ EXPERIMENT
 Their experiment:
 Setup: they used isotope of sulfur to tag protein and
radioactive isotope of phosphorous to tag DNA

 Procedure:
1. Separate samples of E.coli were allowed to be infected
by the protein labeled and DNA-labeled batch of T2
2. The samples were subjected to testing after the onset of
infection to see which type of molecule had entered the
bacterial cell
 Result:
• the phage DNA entered the bacteria but the phage protein
did not
• E.coli , after returning to a culture medium, released
phages that contain radioactive phosphorous
Conclusion:

DNA injected phage contains the genetic information.

Nucleic acids, rather than proteins, are the hereditary

material.
 DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID
(DNA)
• Substance of inheritance
• Contained in ones 46 chromosomes
• Hereditary information is encoded in its chemical
language
• Its program directs the development of ones traits
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick shook with an elegant double-
helical model of DNA which they built from tin and wire
 FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT
DNA IS THE GENETIC MATERIAL

 DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid):

 - polymer of nucleotides, each with:

 - a nitrogenous base (A, T, C, G)

 - deoxyribose (pentose sugar)
 - phosphate group

 CHARGAFF’S RULES

 Erwin Chargaff
 amount of A, T, G, and C varies per species (molecular diversity)
 amount of A = G and T = C approximately
 1:1 ratio of purine and pyrimidine bases (A+G = T+C)

Example: Humans = 30.3% A; e.coli = 26.0% A

THE STRUCTURE OF A DNA STRAND
BUILDING A STRUCTURAL MODEL OF
DNA
 Rosalind Franklin
 a concentrated, viscous solution of
DNA can be separated into fibers
 fibers are similar to a crystal that
produces an x-ray diffraction pattern
when x-rayed
 x-ray diffraction pattern: DNA is a
helix

 James Watson
 width of the helix (two strands =
‘double helix’)
 spacing of nitrogenous bases along
helix
 WATSON-CRICK MODEL
 symbol of molecular biology
 similar to a twisted ladder whose strands are antiparallel
(3’ & 5’)
 sides: sugar-phosphate backbones

 steps: hydrogen-bonded nitrogenous bases

 spacing between base pairs = 0.34 nm

 full turn of the double helix = 3.4 nm

 10 layers of base pairs per full turn of the helix

 complementary base pairing (purine bonded to

pyrimidine) allows molecule to be 2 nm wide (width
dictated by x-ray diffraction pattern)
 2 purines (A&G)= too wide; 2 pyrimidines (C&T)= too
narrow
THE DOUBLE HELIX
16.3: A CHROMOSOME
CONSISTS OF A DNA
MOLECULE PACKED
TOGETHER WITH PROTEINS
 bacterial chromosome: one double-stranded, circular DNA molecule with a
small amount of protein
 eukaryotic chromosome: one linear DNA molecule with a large
amount of protein
 E. coli’s chromosomal DNA: 4.6 million nucleotide pairs (about 4,400
genes)
 Proteins (within a bacterium) cause coiling and “supercoiling” of
chromosome
 ‘nucleoid’: dense region of DNA in a bacterium; not membrane-bound
 ‘chromatin’: complex of eukaryotic DNA and protein; fits into the nucleus
through DNA packing
 CHROMATIN PACKING
IN A EUKARYOTIC CHROMOSOME
series of diagrams and transmission electron micrographs showing the progressive
levels of DNA coiling and folding
1. DNA, THE DOUBLE HELIX

 Ribbon model
 Each ribbon: one sugar-phosphate
backbone
 Phosphate groups along backbone:
negative charge along the outside
of each strand
2. HISTONES
 Proteins responsible for the first level of chromatin
packaging
 More than 1/5 of its amino acids are positively
charged and bind tightly to negatively charged
DNA
 common types in chromatin: H2A, H2B, H3, H4
 Similar among eukaryotes
3. NUCLEOSOMES

 Basic unit of DNA packing

 “beads on a string”
 bead: nucleosome
 string: linker DNA
 DNA wound twice around a protein core
 amino end (N-terminus) of each histone (the
histone tail) extends outward from the nucleosome
4. 30-NM FIBER
 H1 is involved
 interactions between histone tails and the
linker DNA and nucleosomes
 extended 10-nm fiber coils
5. LOOPED DOMAINS
 Formed from the 30-nm fiber
 attached to a chromosome
structure made of proteins
6. METAPHASE CHROMOSOME
looped domains in a mitotic chromosome
fold by themselves
 Some genes are located at the same place
 CHROMATIN?
• The complex of DNA and proteins that makes up a
eukaryotic chromosome
• The chromatin of a chromosome occupies a specific area
within the interphase nucleus, and the chromatin fibers
of different chromosomes do not become entangled
 CHANGES IN CHROMATIN
• Diffuse mass
• Less condense compared to the chromatin of mitotic
chromosomes
• Forms a number of short, thick metaphase
chromosomes that are distinguishable
TWO TYPES OF INTERPHASE
CHROMATIN
1. Heterochromatin
 “irregular clump”
 Highly condensed

 Inaccessible to the machinery in the cell responsible for expressing

genetic information
2. Euchromatin
 “true chromatin”
 Less compacted and more dispersed

 accessible to the machinery in the cell responsible for expressing

genetic information